okay guys let me weigh in on this,
my position
firstly im waiting for all my scores to be removed and i will not submit pcmark scores to hwbot anymore, most of my scores feature totally legitimate tweaks, some scores have things like transparent windows with resized windows that we have worked out is not allowed. the main reason i am removing my scores is so i can stay objective in decision making and no one thinks that i am using their tweaks against them... and just to clarify im not using any tweaks that are replacing benchmark files, so if your doing that, your doing it wrong
ill always bench pcm05 privately though as i love the benchmark
why keep pcm05?
for those that are saying "get rid of pcm05", we are basically at that point and i am sure if this doesnt work then that is what will happen, but there are lots of reasons to keep this benchmark, for example,
we have guys like Steve and Aristides that are always strong in this bench and are getting beaten by tweaks that they are not comfortable using and rightly so, this benchmark has a place and is a source of enjoyment for lots of people, so i believe we should have a proper effort to try and fix it up before abandoning it
please be patient
now guys i see lots of people saying, whys this not banned, why is mine banned and not his, etc, please be patient, this will takes weeks, months, and will be ongoing, but it is no different than any other benchmark, other than the fact it has gone unchecked for so long.. if this happened in 3dmark11 it would be immediately checked and in the future pcmark05 will be the same
what is allowed and whats not?
lets get something cleared up, a cheat is not a super-tweak, i WOULD call bobs TW a supertweak, i would call replacing codecs in a benchmark cheating, if it pleases you, then call it a super-cheat, whatever, but if its outside the rules its not a tweak, and i am just as much to blame for things like TW window resizing as anyone else benching PCM,
now lets get onto the juicy stuff, whats allowed and whats not, this is extremely simple, lets go back to two very basic hwbot rules,
1. "Using software, performing hardware modifications or by human interaction altering the perceived speed of the benchmark program, tricking it to believe it ran faster and thus producing a better result. (adjusted 31st of August 2010)"
2. not modifying the benchmark itself
Yes d3d, video encoding via registry or powertoy and LOD go against these rules, BUT they have been used and accepted as officially OK, unless staff have specifically said something is allowed that goes against HWBOTs general rules then it is NOT allowed
if what you are doing in pcmark05 goes against one of those 2 rules, remove it now. staff will be contacting users with out of line submissions asking for proof on how to replicate them within the rules, if you are worried you cant provide that proof, remove your score now or it will be removed for you
use your brain guys, if you know something is not right, 2400MB/s virusscan on a weak AMD platform, then its probably not right, this is the ethical side of hwbot we can't enforce but hope is in place
Key areas we are targeting to start with
Some of the key areas we will be targeting, but not limited to:
Video encoding replacement, audio encoding
Irregularly large trans windows
Irregularly large memory latency
Massive browser scores
Anything out of line with file decoding
Crazy virusscans or hdd general
What is OK
I am not going to go through every tweak and say its ok or its not ok, thats what the general rules are for and they cover alot of the "super tweaks", but not all,
FD2 as a program is totally allowed, but using it to manipulate the window size or minimize windows is not allowed, similarly using a script to do this is not allowed as it breaks the "benchmark percieved speed rule"
BUT as with any benchmark, if you can do it via control panel such as personalization or registry then it SHOULD be allowed, but there are always exceptions to the rule such as MIPMAP and in the future there might be other exceptions, but this is the current position, there is no one rule fits all model
so take TW for example, if you can make the windows really small and change the text type in control panel then that is legal,
SCRIPTS ARE LEGAL, i use scripts in nearly every benchmark, but to do things like control cpu clock, change gpu clocks on the fly, and to change things like the drives for different harddrive during PCMARK, that is all OK
Using a script to do something that goes against the general rules is NOT ok. For example replacing a file that the benchmark uses to make TE go faster, NOT OK.
Things like codecs can be tricky, as microsoft may update them or another program installed for watching videos may influence the scores, this is not the case in PCM05,
if you are putting codecs specially in the pcm05 directory or replacing codecs that pcm05 installs, this is definatly NOT OK, i think that is common sense
also forcing pcm05 to look in a folder it doesnt normally so it uses your codec, not OK, again common sense,
guys you get the drift right? if it breaks hwbot general rules then it is NOT OK
Raid XPERT
Still up in the air is raid xpert, we are discussing the outcome of this one right now, there and positives and negatives to both sides of the fence and we need to make sure everything is worked out properly
Massman said it was allowed, but now that we are aware that their is some bugging going on, we are reviewing it.
We don't want peoples expensive raid setups obsoleted by a bugged software,
Fairness
This is not a witch hunt, everyone will be given the oppurtunity to prove their tweak is fair in a confidential environment. If you tweak is legitimate, it won't be shared, it will be approved and you can continue using it privately if you so wish.
If you choose to not share the tweak with staff and your score looks out of line then it will be removed.
Lets hope we can clean the benchmark up once and for all, remember guys, please use your brain, we dont want to remove scores, so please do it yourself if you know they go against rules
